Going Solo

I don’t know about you but I just can’t have too much Greg Lake so……….this week I’m resurrecting the Thursday Interview post. Here’s a recent two part interview with Greg which happens to include a couple of great performances woven into the interview. The first part of the interview also has a great story about Lucky Man that you absolutely don’t want to miss.

Before this interview I had never heard Greg speak. I have to say I’m very impressed with his eloquence. If I wasn’t already a huge fan, this interview would have made me one. The second part is just as good….enjoy!

Today we introduce a new recurring post called Yesterday and Today where we celebrate rock heroes from the 60s and 70s that managed to survive fame and fortune and are still entertaining us today. To kick off these posts I’m featuring a singer that I like to refer to as “The Voice”…..Mr Greg Lake (pictured above at an Emerson, Lake and Palmer concert from the 70s). Let’s listen Greg performing C’est La Vie at a concert in Montreal in 1977…..

Greg is still with us today and still performing. Like the rest of us he doesn’t look the same as he did forty years ago but… if you listen closely… the voice is still there.

So…..we talked about The Lovin Spoonful last week. As it turns out, John Sebastian was also quite successful after his time with the group achieving solo success and having memorable performances at many of the great rock festivals in the late 1960s. Here is a great interview with John where he talks about the influence that the great Richie Havens had on his early career and how he ended up on stage at Woodstock as an unscheduled performer.

After listening to John’s interview, I bet you are ready to hear some music. Here are a couple of great videes of John from the Celebration at Big Sur and Woodstock rock festivals.

Anthony Phillips, an amazing guitarist, was one of the founding members of Genesis but………you might not have ever heard of him. He left Genesis in 1970 due to stage fright, before their most productive period.

In the seven years between his departure from Genesis and the release of his first solo album, Anthony studied classical music and worked with a number of other musicians on their projects (including many of his former bandmates).

While it took him a long time to produce his first solo album, The Geese and the Ghost, it was worth the long wait. The album was initially intended to be a collaboration between Anthony and Mike Rutherford, his old Genesis bandmate, but Mike’s other schedule commitments ended up causing the album to be released as a solo effort. Mike and Phil Collins both played a major supporting roles on the album. Let’s listen to a couple of tracks from the album. First up is Which Way The Wind Blows which features a great vocal by Phil…….

Next up is the album title track, The Geese and The Ghost (Pt 1 and Pt 2)……

In my opinion this album matches up to some of the best music produced by Genesis but, unfortunately, it did not achieve any significant commercial success. I have a nice surprise for those of you that were intrigued by the two songs above…….an opportunity to listen to an expanded version of the full album. Enjoy!

This weekend I was thinking about a movie that fell in love with back in 1973 but haven’t seen again since then. The movie, O Lucky Man, was written and directed by Lindsay Anderson. It was a brilliant allegory on life in a capitalist society and a very young Malcolm McDowell was terrific in the lead role of Mick Travis. The movie was not very successful, it opened and closed in the save week in the town in Alabama where I was attending college, but I was lucky enough to see it.

One of the most interesting parts of the movie was the use of Alan Price (the original keyboard player for the Animals) and his band as kind of a Greek chorus. They appeared at various time throughout the movie and their songs provided a running commentary. The songs were quite brilliant in their own right, providing a commentary on the real facts of life that I was just beginning to learn about as a young man of twenty in the United States. I bought the soundtrack album and still treasure that vinyl copy.

So……for today’s Two’fer Tuesday Post I want to share two of my favorite songs from the movie. Their lyrics are as meaningful to me as they were back in 1973. As always, let me know what you think.

One of the first singles that I can remember buying was No Time by The Guess Who (written by Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman). I think this was the start of my love for all things Canadian! I listened that song so much that I couldn’t sleep when I went to bed at night because the lyrics were running through my head:

….No time, no time, no time, no time
No time, no time, no time, no time
I got, got, got, got no time
I got, got, got, got no time
I got, got, got, got no time
No-no-no, no-no-no, no time
No-no-no, no-no-no, no time…..

Ok, you get the point and the lyrics weren’t that great but maybe you have to hear the song to appreciate my infatuation. Let’s listen….

I loved The Guess Who then (and now) and the big reason was that I love Burton Cummings voice. The man could belt a song like few others.

I tell you all of this so that you will understand how upset I was in 1975 when I heard that Burton Cummings was leaving The Guess Who to go solo, effectively killing the band (yes i know that something called The Guess Who kept performing but don’t even get me started on that!). Of course I bought Burton’s first solo album and neither that album, nor any of his other solo albums, came close to capturing the magic of the Guess Who. However……Burton’s first solo album did include one kick ass ballad, Stand Tall, that really highlighted his his amazing voice. Let’s listen…..

It’s funny to me how many people leave bands to go solo only to never again capture the magic that they had in the band. In the coming year we will explore more examples of this unfortunate phenomenon.

While we are on the topic of The Guess Who, can anyone tell why they are not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame??? No…..I didn’t thank so! You can help get them in by visiting the following site and signing the online petition. What are you waiting for….do it!